[governance] EU and India

[Deirdre Williams]

Dear All,
I think we need to retrieve the point of balance, and to do that we need to
come together.
The information below comes from a Caribbean mailing list that discusses
the Economic Partnership Agreements proposed between the European Union
(EU) and the Africa, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) countries -
c-epas-request at pambazuka.org

Deirdre


 ?Citizens and Parliamentarians are increasingly worried about the risks
that the EU?s corporate trade agenda poses to food safety, digital rights
and environmental protection. Trade negotiations should be conducted in an
open and democratically-accountable way, and it is high time that the
Commission stops handing over the negotiating agenda to multinational
companies. It is disappointing that the court ruling seems to point in
exactly the opposite direction?, stated Pia Eberhardt.

Court ruling fails to stop business lobbies' privileged access in EU-India
trade talks

http://corporateeurope.org/pressreleases/2013/court-ruling-fails-stop-business-lobbies-privileged-access-eu-india-trade-talks

Brussels, 7 June ? In a ruling delivered today following a lawsuit by lobby
watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory, the EU?s General Court in Luxembourg
concludes that the European Commission did not violate EU rules when
withholding information about the EU-India free trade talks from the
public, even though it had already shared the information with corporate
lobby groups. Corporate Europe Observatory warns that this decision risks
deepening the secrecy around EU trade negotiations and legitimises the
Commission?s practice of granting corporate lobby groups privileged access
to its policy-making, at the expense of the wider public interest.

The lawsuit, which was filed in February 2011, was a last resort for
Corporate Europe Observatory after the Commission refused to fully release
documents related to the EU?s ongoing trade negotiations with India,
including meeting reports, emails and a letter, which it had sent to
industry groups including the European employers? federation
BusinessEurope, one of the most powerful corporate lobby groups in
Brussels. The Commission claimed that the censored information was
'sensitive' as it concerned EU priorities and strategies in the
negotiations and argued that public disclosure would undermine the EU?s
international relations.

Corporate Europe Observatory argued that the information, which the
Commission had already shared with the business world at large, could not
suddenly become confidential when a public interest group asked for it. The
group accused the Commission of manifest discrimination in favour of
corporate lobby groups and violating the EU?s access to information rules.

In a first reaction to the ruling, Corporate Europe Observatory trade
campaigner Pia Eberhardt said:

?There is a big risk that the Commission will see the court ruling as a
green light to continue to develop its trade policy behind closed doors,
together with, and for, a tiny elite of corporate lobby groups. The result
is a trade policy that caters for big business needs, but works against the
interests of the bulk of the population in the EU and other parts of the
world.?

The judgement comes as the EU and India are reportedly sorting out their
last differences, in order to ink their final proposal for a free trade
deal before elections in the EU and in India in 2014. On both sides, trade
unions, farmers? groups, patients' organisations and other civil society
groups have repeatedly raised concerns about the potentially devastating
impacts of the agreement, particularly on access to medicines and the
livelihoods of Indian farmers and street traders.

CEO believes that the court ruling has potentially serious implications for
other trade policies, such as the upcoming free trade negotiations between
the EU and the US.

?Citizens and Parliamentarians are increasingly worried about the risks
that the EU?s corporate trade agenda poses to food safety, digital rights
and environmental protection. Trade negotiations should be conducted in an
open and democratically-accountable way, and it is high time that the
Commission stops handing over the negotiating agenda to multinational
companies. It is disappointing that the court ruling seems to point in
exactly the opposite direction?, stated Pia Eberhardt.

Corporate Europe Observatory will now carefully analyse the ruling and
consider next steps. A potential appeal would need to be filed within two
months and ten days.




* * * * * * * * * * *

P i a   E b e r h a r d t
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
Cranachstra?e 48
50733 Cologne
Germany


www.corporateeurope.org
Tel.: ++49 (0)221 789 678 10
Mobile: ++49 (0) 152 56 30 91 02
pia at corporateeurope.org
skype: piaebse


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-- 
“The fundamental cure for poverty is not money but knowledge" Sir William
Arthur Lewis, Nobel Prize Economics, 1979
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